Jerry Hayes

In praise of Jackie Doyle Price for giving the Kippers the swivel finger in a seat that would think Ghengis Khan was a dangerous lefty

5 May 2013 at 12:08

The electorate have spoken. Or rather the thirty percent who bothered to get off their backsides and vote have.

But what were they saying?

Was it that nice Mr. Farage has got some very sensible well thought out and costed proposals which will get this economy moving? Sadly, not

Was it that nice Mr Farage has made some very well thought out proposals for us to make a structured exit from the EU whilst preserving our trading position, promoting growth and creating jobs? Ahem.

Was it that nice Mr. Farage speaks his mind, listens, speaks to us in our language and is not a normal politician? Now we are getting there.

The delightful irony of all of this is that the coalition have got robust and sensible policies to limit immigration without damaging the economy. The trouble is that UKBA is such a basket case that nobody (particularly ministers) believe a word that they say. Labour are in turmoil and the Kippers have suddenly realised that their policy is unworkable. It is now, as they say, “under review”.

To her credit Theresa May has grasped that the immigration problem could be the making or breaking of not just her but the government. She is single minded, determined, utterly ruthless and realises she has about fifteen months to get it right. If she doesn’t Tory votes will haemorrhage to UKIP and install the most left wing Labour policies since Michael Foot. That really has to be the prime focus of Lynton Crosby, to implant in the mind of the electorate that a vote for UKIP is not a wasted vote, it is a dangerous one. Nigel Farage is Miliband’s little helper. Socialism by stealth.

I have been rather impressed that the backbenches have remained so relatively calm. The usual suspects have been calling for local deals with the Kippers. This is hardly the politics of high principle, but of funk. And David Davis has been doing what he does best.

Bayoneting the wounded with a twinkle in his eye.

Quite what the electoral asset is of firing all advisors who went to Eton has escaped me. It is all rather Mc Carthyite and rather unpleasant. It also very strange as the sort of people who think that this is a good idea tend to be Worshippers at the holy Shrine of St. Boris of Eton. Well, there’s nowt so queer as folk.

One backbencher that I have been particularly impressed with is Jackie Doyle Price the MP for Thurrock. She has taken on the Kippers directly and castigated colleagues, in particular John Baron of Billericay, for giving subliminal messages for a pro kipper vote.

Thurrock is an interesting constituency. Apart from a brief aberration between 1987 to 1992 it has been a Labour stronghold since 1945. But the electorate are very right wing. In 2010 UKIP scored 3,390 to the BNP’s 3,618.

Jackie has a majority of just 92.

So when all of these foolish an opportunist backbenchers ( usually with majorities so large that they have to be weighed )start bleating about local deals, think of Jackie working her backside of for the people of Thurrock who has the courage and determination to give the kippers the swivel finger. I hope that CCHQ give her all the support that she needs and David Cameron gives her credit.

But Thurrock has always been this weird phenomenon of natural Labour supporters voting for the far right. Many would regard Ghengis Khan as a dangerous lefty. We used to call it the Alf Garnett vote. Iain Dale calls them UKIP Labour. Which means that unless Labour gets its act together Margaret Hodge’s seat of Barking could be a problem. She may have run the BNP out of Dodge last time who knows what will happen in 2015.

So many Tories could learn a lot from the good sense of Jackie Doyle Price. Take the kippers on for what they are and give them no quarter. They won’t like it up them.